reviews

The Prime are the Commonwealth’s worst nightmare. Coexistence is impossible with the technologically advanced aliens, who are genetically hardwired to exterminate all other forms of life. Twenty-three planets have already fallen to the invaders, with casualties in the hundreds of millions. And no one knows when or where the genocidal Prime will strike next. Nor are the Prime the only threat. For more than a hundred years, a shadowy cult, the Guardians of Selfhood, has warned that an alien with mind-control abilities impossible to detect or resist–the Starflyer–has secretly infiltrated the Commonwealth. Is the Starflyer an ally of the Prime, or has it orchestrated a fight to the death between the two species for its own advantage?

I started Peter F. Hamilton’s “Judas Unchained” immediately after finishing “Pandora’s Star” which was a good thing since “Judas” picks up immediately where the previous book ended without any intro or recap. The Commonwealth is still reeling from the initial Prime invasion which claimed 23 planets after the barrier fell. The new Navy is re-lifing suspended criminals for soldiers and building warships and super-weapons as fast it can to fight off the Prime threat. All of the characters from the first book (plus a few more with some surprises), along with their complicated back-stories and plot lines are back in the conclusion of the Commonwealth Saga.

The escalation, action, and intrigue continue up until the final chapters, in which (most) questions are finally answered. Who was the Starflyer agent on the Second Chance mission?  Who erected the barrier around the Dyson pair and how was it shut down? What is the Starflyer? What have the Guardians of Selfhood been planning on Far Away? Is genocide against the Primes the only way to save the human race? (and countless others).

The sheer number of characters, locations, astronomical distances, and ultra-powerful weapons in “Judas Unchained” made it difficult to follow at times (especially since I was only reading bits and pieces over the course of three months), but it was a very enjoyable read. The end was satisfactory, although I was surprised at what characters seemed to drop out of the story line about halfway through and which ones emerged as more important players near the end. I might have to revisit Hamilton’s universe (and apparently some of the same characters) in the Void trilogy in the near future.

The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter, contains more than six hundred worlds, interconnected by a web of transport “tunnels” known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: over one thousand light-years away, a star . . . vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears. Since the location is too distant to reach by wormhole, a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat.

I just finished “Pandora’s Star” by Peter F. Hamilton, the first book of his Commonwealth Saga. This was another recommendation by Steve Gibson (many times) on his Security Now! podcast that I finally got around to reading. It had been over a year since I last read some good hard SF so this was a pleasant return to the genre.

In the 24th century, mankind has spread out among the stars thanks to Compression Space Transport’s (CST) wormhole network. Much like the web of the airline routes of old, CST’s train system carries millions of passengers instantly across hundreds of light years to distant planets. The average Commonwealth citizen sports a myriad of optical inserts for heads-up-displays, an e-butler, and a connection to the ubiquitous unisphere (the intersolar internet on steroids). Memories are backed up constantly on insert chips. Killed in an accident? No problem, just spend a few weeks in rejuvenation and have your memories re-loaded into a newly cloned body. Body death no longer means complete death and people live for hundreds of years with many different re-lifes.

Lowly astronomer Dudley Bose has confirmed that the envelopment of the Dyson Alpha and Dyson Beta stars occurred instantaneously.  The only explanation is an unknown, superior alien species has constructed a Dyson sphere around both star systems. The Dyson system is too far away to reach by the existing wormhole network, so the Commonwealth government decides to build a wormhole-based FTL starship to go and investigate the envelopment. Did the inhabitants of the Dyson systems enclose themselves for protection, or did someone or something else imprison them? You’ll quickly understand the title reference when the Second Chance arrives at the Dyson Pair.

“Pandora’s Star” combines the astronomical engineering feats of “Ringworld” with the strange, blockaded alien species like “The Mote in God’s Eye” and the governmental/political themes of “Foundation” into a very enjoyable SF epic. Be warned, however, it ends abruptly and leads directly into “Judas Unchained,” which I’ve already started.